The World Bank Group has committed $3 billion in energy efficiency initiatives in the Europe and Central Asia region, presenting an opportunity to increase energy supplies, improve energy security, reduce CO2 emissions, and forestall a looming energy crisis.Read More »

In 1992, the World Bank's Board of
Directors approved a set of good practice principles for the
power sector. In the light of the 1992 Board decision and
given the continuing... Show More + efforts of countries around the world
to reform their sectors in line with these principles, the
Bank saw substantial value in surveying and reporting on the
experiences of both developed and developing countries with
the process. A compilation of empirical and anecdotal
information on the problems, perceptions, and successes of
countries that had completed or were still pursuing power
sector reforms could be useful to countries contemplating or
initiating reforms of their own development strategies,
institutions, and pricing policies for the sector. The
results would also be useful as feedback to Bank staff
involved in assistance and lending to the power sector.
Recognizing this need for information, the Bank implemented
a study of the pricing of bulk electricity supplies in
restructured markets. The work focused on eight power
systems in four countries where the reform process has
already made substantial advances: the United Kingdom,
Norway, the United States, and Chile. Show Less -

This paper reviews the principal
institutional, economic/financial, and technical issues
related to energy sector rehabilitation and development
which the countries... Show More + of Central and Eastern Europe face in
the process of their economic transformation. These issues
concern primarily the institutional weaknesses at the
sectoral, subsectoral, and enterprise levels; inadequate
energy pricing; high energy intensity, low energy
efficiency, and the related environmental degradation; and
excessive dependence on energy imports from the former USSR. Show Less -